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Grand Magic Games X806: Blazing Soul's Entrance
Main Page - Grand Magic Games X806 A small boat gently brushed up against the sandy shore. Small waves lapped at the beach, gently pushing the craft farther and farther up the sand, until one of it's four occupants hopped out and dragged it out of the wave's reach. "Not going to lie..." He muttered, a tall, fit man with short brown hair and dark shades hiding his eyes. "Traveling by boat and not having to listen to Axel complain about the waves is a nice change." "Oh, don't be hard on him, Rift." A woman spoke up next, the only one among the group. She looked to be about the same age as the first man, with a voluptuous body but an unfortunate fashion sense. She sported brown pants, a brown, sleeveless shirt, and a brown bandana that kept her long black hair tied up in a ponytail. "Everyone's got their quirks. Like Leo. He's barely said a word since we left home. Right Leo?" "I have so..." A short boy muttered under his breath, sporting bright blue eyes and long, shaggy blue hair. He slowly stood up and slid his hands into the pockets of his hoody, and stepped out onto the beach. "Besides, we-." "Oh, let's just get on with it!" The last member of their party abruptly stood up, rocking the boat and sending Leo stumbling with his dismount. He couldn't have been any older than Leo, with burning red eyes and white hair. "We're here, so what's the problem?" Rift pinched the bridge of his nose under his shades, resting his other hand on his hip. "Kat, remind me... Why, of all the other members of our guild, did anyone think it was a good idea to bring Raven along?" The woman began to giggle, but Raven scratched his white hair in confusion. "Uh... Because they want you guys to win?" Kat and Rift exchanged a glance. Kat continued to giggle, so Rift stepped up with a sigh. "Alright pyro, I’m goin' to lay this out for ya. You where like... The seventh pick. You didn't even make up the backup team at first." Raven shrugged slightly, and through he continued to make eye contact, it didn't really look like he was listening. "Only reason you're here is because..." Rift began counting off his fingers. "Zumma is still busy with his Council job on the islands. Isa turned the invite down because doesn't like fighting, and honestly because she probably doesn't want the attention. And Peltin just couldn't be bothered. So don't get a big head." "Yeah, yeah, sure..." Raven waived him off, strolling around him and staring out at the island before them. "Tell yourself that after we win." A vain popped in Rift's forehead, but just as he was about to say something else, Leo bumped Kat in the flat of the back with his elbow. "So, what are we here to do?" He said quickly. "Oh yeah, right." She quickly grabbed at her back pocket, producing a small, tightly rolled scroll for all to see. Quickly unwinding the cord, she unraveled the cloth and began to read aloud. "Greetings participants. Thank you for choosing to participate in this qualifying round of-." "Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Raven interrupted. "Short version only." Kat puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, mumbling. "Party pooper..." Under her breath. She leaned back a bit, resting her elbow on Leo's shoulder and tracing her finger across the paper. "Galuna Island... Enclosed by barriers... Proceed to temple... Overcome obstacles... Retrieve a statue... And, bring it back to the beach. We'll be graded on our success, adaptability, and overall performance." She shrugged and tucked the scroll back into her pocket, throwing her arm around Leo's neck with a rough shake. "Sounds easy enough, right bud?" "Obstacles?" Rift repeated, glancing towards the forest. "What kind of obstacles?" "Sorry, we're going with the short version." Kat chuckled as Rift gave an annoyed huff and glared at Raven. "Oh, don't be like that. It didn't say what we'd run into, just that there'd be challenges to deal with." Pushing Leo along in front of her, Kat began marching towards the forest with a large smile plastered across her face. "C'mon, let's get going. It's a game, so how bad could any of it be?" The two stepped into the woods, with Raven strolling along after them, a bored expression plastered across his face. Rift was the last to enter, scratching the back of his with a grin fill of sharp, pointed teeth. "You've never seen a horror movie, have you?" ---- Fifteen minutes later, the group had made a fair amount of progress towards their destination. The forest was pretty dense, composed of plants of all kinds of shape and size. They'd found a small animal trail in the undergrowth, and had decided to follow it for as long as they thought they could. They could see the island's natural rise ahead of them, with some sort of stone structure on top. None of them could make out any details, but it was the only thing they could see besides the trees. Besides, even if it turned out to not be their intended destination, the view from up there would make orienting themselves much easier. "Kat..." Leo moaned from the front of the group, "Can you please stop pushing me? Can see the path just as well as you guys can." "I know that." She said, her hands having never left the boy's shoulders since the beach. "C'mon, you look glum. I'm just trying to keep you interested. You've barely said anything since we left home." "Maybe that's 'cause you keep bugging him!" Rift called from the back of the line. Kat turned around and pulled her tongue at him, but released her hold on Leo all the same. "Just think, Leo. Even if we don't win, when we get home your sister will have bragging rights. She'll get to tell everyone that her awesome big brother got to participate in a Grand Magic Games from another country." "Fine, fine..." Leo huffed, taking a quick few steps to put some distance between them. "I still don't get why we need to walk though. We can see the place, I could probably fly there in thirty seconds." "I'm pretty sure they'd have thought of a contingency for that." Rift chuckled. "Even if they haven't, we'll probably lose a ton of points for pulling a stunt like that." Kat leaned in to whisper in Leo's ear. "Says the only one of us who can't fly..." Leo's scowl finally broke, and he began to chuckle. Seeing this, a wide grin stretched across Kat's face. "Besides, you're thinking of this like a retrieval job. We're suppose to be having fun, and where's the fun in just flying straight to the goal?" The group stepped into a small clearing, and Leo shrugged his shoulders. "I guess so." The animal trail split off ahead of them. One trail looked narrower than the one they'd been on, and looked like it began to wind back and forth. The other path was straighter and more well defined, but veered off from their destination. "Uh-oh... Where do we go?" "Don't suppose we've got a coin to flip, do we?" Rift suggested with a chuckle. Suddenly, a slight rustling noise emanated from the underbrush, seemingly coming from everywhere around them. It sounded like something was moving, but it was impossible to tell what it was through the thick foliage. "Anyone else hear that?" No sooner had the words exited his mouth, did an army of small, slender objects beginning winding their way out of the underbrush. "Snakes?" Leo gasped, backing into the others as they all formed up back to back. "Not snakes... Vines." Rift corrected. "Guys?" Raven called over his shoulder. "Vines? Oh-no... I've seen this anime before." Kat spun around in a panicked tone, despite the huge grin she wore, and threw herself at Leo in a fit of laughter. "Help Leo! I'm the only girl here; the creepy vines are after me!" "Hey guys?" Raven called again. "Ahgg... Kat, what are you-!?" The diminutive boy slid forwards under Kat's weight, and he struggled to just stay standing. The moment he stopped himself however, one of the vines lashed out at him, coiling around his ankle. "Dammit!" Kat backed away in surprise, pulling Leo along with her, but the vine stayed coiled around his leg, and the others where quickly creeping in on them. "Ok, so their hostile." Rift said, smashing his fists together. "I guess we-." "Screw it, I tried." A bright light appeared in the palm of Raven's hand, followed by an intense blast of heat. "First Spell: Agni!" A bright, blazing inferno filled the area. The others covered their faces in surprise, hearing nothing but the roar of the flire as it ripped through the trees. The flames danced around the spot his three companions where standing, but Raven spared little else. The vines and trees where all set ablaze, burning into a charred husk in a matter of seconds. The only other thing that escaped the flames was the vine wrapped around Leo's leg, but anything connecting it to the other plants was incinerated into nothing. The inferno died down as quickly as I had appeared, condensing back into a fireball in the palm of Raven's hand. It extinguished with the closing of his fist, and he smirked at the vastly altered landscape around him. "See, aren't you glad I came along now?" Rift gasped, waiting until he was sure that the air wouldn't burn his lungs. He flicked his shades up to his forehead, squinting under the sun and glaring back at him. "A little warning next time, asshole." "I tried, you guys didn't listen." Scolding him had never worked, especially when Raven thought he'd done a good job. He was rather simple like that. "Guess it's my turn to lead now." He gestured out at what had once been a dense forest, now nothing but a scorched shell in a twenty-food radius. As he walked off, Rift ran his hands through his hair. "Seriously, how does he lead a team of his own...?" Shaking his head, he knelt down to address Kat and Leo, who had yet to get up. "I swear, it'll be a miracle if I don't kick that pyro's ass before this whole thing is over." Kat quickly nodded at him, only half listening to what he'd said, before quickly returning her attention to Leo's leg, which had developed a bit of a rash under where the vine had ensnared him. "You ok buddy?" She said, sounding serious for the first time since... Probably before they left home. "It doesn't hurt, does it?" "I'm fine..." He mumbled, massaging his knee. "But.. It feels numb. Like my leg's gone to sleep." The two older mages exchanged a glance, and Rift got up to inspect the vine, the only thing besides them that had been spared Raven's flames. "You don't think it's poisonous, do ya?" He asked, rolling it over with his foot to reveal a thick, leafy sprout on the underside. "Like poison ivy or something?" "If it is, don't play with it!" Kat barked at him. Rift took a quick step back, and Kat leaned over to get a look herself. After a few seconds, she let out a slow sigh and glanced at Leo's leg again. "I know this one... It's from one of Jaina's old painkiller recipes. The plant can move its vines to catch pray, and the leafs on the end release spores that can paralyze predators." "For how long?" Leo asked earnestly. After thinking for a moment though, Kat ultimately shook her head. "I can't remember exactly... But it might wash off with water." "Which we don't have." Rift hummed, over the sound of another inferno igniting in the distance. With a grimace, he knelt down and grabbed Leo by the shoulder, trying to pull him to his feet. "C'mon, those vine things could come back. And I really don't want to be out of Raven's line of sight the next time he decides he's going to set the island on fire." "Here... Let me." Kat stopped him, turning around crouching so that Leo could ride piggyback. "It was my goofing around that did this, so it's only fair that I help you out, right bud?" "S-sure..." Leo mumbled, his face turning a little red as he wrapped his arms around Kat's neck. Taking hold of the boy's legs, Kat stood up and began marching after Raven, keeping an eye on the underbrush for any vines that may have slithered back into the scorch. "Don't worry..." She winked over her shoulder at him. "When we tell everyone back home what happened, this part can be our little secret." ---- A few minutes later, following the trail of charred landscape Raven had left in his path, the other three members of the group eventually caught up with him. They only caught a few more fleeting glances at any more vines, and when they did they where in retreat of Raven's licking flames. Soon the greenery returned, and the wildlife returned with it. Croaking frogs, chirping insects, singing birds, the once dead quiet forest was soon a symphony of incoherent wildlife calls. They found the silver haired youth on guard, staring out into the forest with a firball burning in each hand. "At-ease, solder." Rift chuckled. "I'm pretty sure you got them all, pyro. So cool off already." "Someone else is here..." He grumbled, the flames in his hands intensifying. "Someone's watching us." "Well, maybe there's another team on the island?" Kat suggested, shuffling a little to get Leo into a more comfortable position on her back. "I mean, they can't have set up a dozen other islands like this to test every team. Could they?" "It's not a team..." Raven sighed, extinguishing the fires in his hands. "It's... Uh... It's Clair." The others all took a step back in surprise, watching Raven's half bored, half annoyed expression for any sign of a lie. An odd bird call filled the forest for a moment, before Rift took another look around. "You mean your girlfriend followed us all the way out here?" He began to chuckle, smacking him on the shoulder. "That's... Well, dedication is the polite way to put it." "She's not my girlfriend..." Raven said through gritted teeth. "Yeah, well. One of you thinks that." Rift chuckled again. "But, how would she get here?" Kat said skeptically, keeping a close eye out for the chestnut-haired beauty that apparently followed Raven everywhere. "They must've closed off the island, right? I mean, we didn't even know where we where going until this morning. How would Clair have gotten here so fast?" The doubt they all carried seemed to draw on Raven's patience. "I know what I saw, ok?" Leo suddenly shifted on Kat's back, pointing out toward the trees. "Hey, isn't that-?" Kat stumbled slightly, trying to compensate for Leo's sudden shift in weight. "Woah, woah, easy Leo. You're not as light as you-." "Shelly?!" He called, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Shelly, is that you?" By now, they where all confused. Raven was one thing, but Leo was never one for practical jokes. The fact that he'd now seen something added a little more validity to their situation. Raven however, looked back at him and smirked. "He takes one hit, and he's already crying for his sister." Rift smacked him upside the head. "Don't be an asshole." "Guys, this might be one of the challenges set up for us." Kat mumbled, nodding out in the opposite direction Leo had pointed. "Because I swear I just saw Fiona waving to us from behind that tree." "Come here..." A feint call echoed from all around them, and they all shored up again. Each one stared out in a different direction, keeping an eye out for threats again. The only thing that they could hear though, was the ever present hum of birds. "W-was that my dad?" Asked Leo. "Bullshit, it was Zumma." Raven growled. "You think so?" Kat questioned, turning her head to the side in confusion. "Sweet little voice like that, I swore it was Carra." She glanced over her shoulder at Leo, but quickly shrugged when she realized he seemed more intent on finding his family. "What's that thing you hear about in every fantasy book? The Forest of illusions, or something like that?" Rift dug a finger into his ear, but ultimately shook his head. "I'm not seeing any of this." He flipped up his shades and squinted through the sunlight, but no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to spot anything through the thick fog that seemed to have materialized out of nowhere. "Let's just keep going." "In which direction, Rift? All I see is fog." Kat mumbled, the real obstacle instantly becoming apparent to all of them. "I think we screwed up. We let ourselves get turned around." Rift grunted in annoyance. Something had to be causing this. Something, or someone. He'd never heard of Illusion Magic working that well at range, so whatever was doing this had to be close. The shadows dancing just beyond the fog that he was beginning to see made a pretty good case for that, and it couldn't have been more plants, because Raven would have torched them if it where. His gaze traced up the trees to the canopy, where he spotted a small bird watching them from a branch. It wasn't that big, but as he looked closer, he began to spy more of them. One of the opened it’s beak, but no sound came out. "There it is again." Said Leo. "I'm telling you, it's my dad." "What do you mean? It was a girl's voice." Kat argued. "Ok..." Rift grunted, placing both hands together. Another bird opened it's beak, and finally Rift could hear a soft, feminine call for himself. "Don't go..." "Screw you!" In a bright flash, a machine appeared in Rift's hands. It resembled a hammer, but with an array of gears, ratchets, and levers where the head would have been. The machine sprung to life, creating an ear-splitting racket that sounded like someone had dumped a bin of coins onto a tile floor. The birds scattered immediately, and Rift's three companions all jumped in surprise. Kat mouthed something, unable to cover her ears because she was still holding Leo, and winced away from the painful ringing. After it became clear that he hadn't heard what she said, she just shook her head in confusion. He was about to explain, but decided better after glancing at his machine again. With a clap of his hand, he crafted a set of four metal earmuffs and handed them out, before hulling his machine over his shoulder and waving for them all to follow into the rapidly clearing fog. ---- After almost an hour of walking, the group found themselves at what appeared to be the entrance to the temple. Deciding that they where far enough away from their last trial, Rift's machine disassembled itself and dropped to pieces on the ground. "Ok..." Kat mumbled, shaking her earmuffs down around her neck. "What was that about?" "I had a hunch." Rift shrugged, rubbing his sore shoulder. It may have been his creation, but the noise maker he'd been carrying vibrated like a jackhammer. "Can't say for sure, but I think the birds where doing it." Kat motioned for him to continue with his explanation. "I figured enough noise would drown them out. Their call seemed to be what was doing it." Leo shook his head, massaging his head just in front of his ears. "Couldn't you have just scared them away?" "I could've." He shrugged. "But they where the only things that stuck around after Pyro's little light-show. So they probably don't spook easy. Besides, who's to say they weren't following us? We could've got real lost real fast if we thought we where clear of them." "Who cares how we did it." Raven scoffed, inspecting the stone doorway that stood before them. "We're here, so let's get this done." As soon as he took his first step into the shadow, an array of spikes jumped out at him from the floor. He gasped as stumbled back, almost falling before Rift caught him by the collar of his shirt. "Yeah, sure Raven, you first." He laughed as the spikes slowly retracted. "You're leading after all, so what's the plan, huh?" Red eyes burning with irritation, Raven angrily threw Rift's hand away. It looked like he was about to say something, when Kat kicked a rock into the doorway, causing the spikes to jump out once again. "Move inside the tunnel, spikes come out... Seems kind'a simple." She hummed, clasping her hands behind her back. The shadow below her feet grew slightly, and soon began to rise off the ground as a thin, black stick figure. The figure prodded around the entrance a bit, then jumped back and flexed its arms. "I bet I could beat this challenge in a cinch." "What about the rest of us?" Leo questioned, sitting on a rock and inspecting the rash on his leg. "None of us would be able to follow you." "I'll break 'em as I go." Kat shrugged, watching the shadow figure prod at one of the spikes, bending it without too much effort. "They're not made of metal, or even rock. I'll clear the way, then you guys can follow along after I'm done." "Alright, sounds easy." Rift shrugged, crossing his arms and leaning back against a tree. "Call us when your done." "Nope." Kat shrugged. The others all did a double take. Raven took an aggressive step forward. "What do you mean, nope?" "Exactly what I said: nope." She said again, smiling a mischievous smile at them all. "Why should I have to do all the work? I think you guys are going to owe me one if I get you though this on my own." The others all exchanged a glance, and after a few confused scratches of their heads, Leo sighed. "So... What do you want?" Kat's eyes lit up, and her smile turned into a grin. "Just one thing." She edged closer, and the shadow figure standing behind her pointed to one person in particular. "Rift?" He seemed surprised, suddenly growing nervous. "Yeah...?" "Who'd you see?" She said quickly. He glanced to both Raven and Leo, but apparently they had no idea what she was talking about either. "Uh... What?" "Back there, with your illusion birds." She said, nodding towards the path they'd traveled down. "We all saw people we cared about. I saw Carra and my sister, Leo saw his family, and Raven saw Clair." Raven stepped up. "I told you I-." "You where the last one to see something. And when you did, right before you made your noise maker thing, you got annoyed." Kat continued, ignoring Raven's argument and creeping closer to Rift with each point. A small bead of sweat ran down Rift's neck, and Kat gently poked him in the chest. "So... Who. Did. You. See?" Rift stared back at her, unsure why he was getting so nervous. Why did Kat have to be so good at getting under people's skin? "Is... That really important?" "It's important to me." Kat nodded slightly. She stood up straight, and the shadow figure behind her sunk back into her shadow. "But... If you don't want to tell, we could always think of another plan." She began walking away, but was starring at him from the corner of her eye the whole time. Leo shuffled closer, nodding encouragingly for him to tell, and even Raven gestured for him to just get it over with already. With a long sigh, he mumbled. "She works at Harbers Cafe..." "Hmm?" Kat turned around, but it honestly looked like she hadn't heard what he'd said. "Who?" "That one waitress, with the red hair... Wears glasses half the time." Rift scratched the back of his neck, tilting his head down to not look any of them in the eye, even despite his shades. "She caught me once when I was passing by, asked me to help her with something. After that we got to talking... And, we've been seeing each other for the past month." "Aww... That's sweet." Kat cooed. After a moment however, her expression changed to one of confusion. "Wait, so why you'd get annoyed then?" "I don't like people getting in my head. Stupid birds included." He grumbled, quickly gesturing towards the entrance. "There: I played your game. So come on, help us out here." "Oh, don't be like that..." Kat hummed, looking rather pleased with herself. "I was going to help out either way, I just wanted to see if you'd actually tell me." A vein popped in Rift's forehead, but Kat sank down into a shadowy spot on the ground before he could complain. "You guys still owe me though." Her voice carried like an echo as the black spot moved into the entrance. "And seeing as how I'm getting sick of hotel food, one of you is buying pizza tonight!" ---- About fifteen minutes later, Kat called for them all to follow. The time was enough for them to... Mostly, forget about her suckering them into paying for dinner, and they all stepped into another large, stone room beyond the hallway of spikes. "Hey guys!" Kat called to them, but they didn't see her. They looked around slightly, and realized that the floor dropped off on either side of the room. "Down here!" The boys all peered over the edge to see Kat, standing at the bottom of a large hole. The platform they where standing on was little more than a bridge. "What the hell are you doing down there?!" Rift called to her, his voice echoing off the damp walls of the cavern. "Getting a key!" She yelled back, pointing to the wall opposite to the hallway of spikes. "They left us instructions!" They all looked up, and Raven stepped closer to investigate. "Key... Below us. Exit... above." He tilted his head back, obviously giving the abridged version. "Can't use magic..." "Yeah... I sort of skipped that part!" Kat called to them. "I'm a little stuck!" "Then how'd you get down there?" Asked Leo. "I climbed down!" The guys exchange a confused glance, and their lack of a response prompted Kat to explain further. "All the walls down here are wet though, It's too slippery for me to climb back up! And my Shadow magic isn't working!" Rift rolled his eyes, hanging his shades from the collar of his shirt. "Who's bright idea was it to let her lead?" "Yours..." Raven shrugged. "When you told us all about your girlfriend." Rift shot him an annoyed glance, but Kat yelled to them again before he could make any sort of retort. "Could you guys like... Throw me a vine or something?! It's getting cold down here!" "Hey, what's this?" Leo muttered, brushing his hand across a single raised stone on the otherwise immaculately laid brick floor. A blue tear mark sat on the top, and next to it was another raised brick with what looked like valve on it. "Push the button to fill the room with water." Raven continued to read, but this time from a carved stone above one of the drop-offs. "Push the other button to drain." Like a flash, Rift zipped across the room and out the door. Leo, still nursing his leg, couldn't follow after him, and Raven didn't seem to care, but he returned a moment later with a basketball sized rock clutched against his chest, which he dropped on the fill button while wearing a huge grin across his face. "Aaaaahhhh!" They heard Kat scream, just as a stone door fell to block the entrance. "What are you guys-!?" "Sorry, can't hear you!" Rift yelled. "I think we figured it out!" Leo nervously glanced over the side again, hearing the sound of rapidly flowing water. "What're you doing?" "This one's easy." Rift said, waiving them off. "Someone goes down to get the key, the rest of us fill the room with water, and they float back up here. Then we weigh the button down with something and float up to the exit." "Seriously!?" Kat screamed in annoyance. "That's your plan!?" "Payback's a bitch!" He yelled back to her. Spying the worried look on Leo's face however, he patted him on the back and said. "C'mon, if we're lucky, it'll wash that vine crap off your leg too." ---- Despite her numerous protests, Kat rose up with the water, and together the four of them floated up to the exit. She stuck the key into a small stone keyhole, and a stone door slowly swung open. The small of fresh air, after being stuck inside the musty old cave, was a much-welcomed change. Kat remained oddly quiet as they set about drying themselves off, until she strolled out from behind a rock in the process of wringing out her bandanna and glanced at Rift. "Jerk..." "What was the last thing Jaina and the guild master said before we left?" Rift argued without even an ounce of sympathy. "Be careful. Don't take risks. And don't run in without thinking." Kat rolled her eyes and began fashioning hair back into a ponytail before retying her bandana. "That one was on you." "Fine... I guess your right." She muttered, a small smile creeping across her face. "Wait till I tell your girlfriend you jumped at the chance to see me soaking wet." Rift did a double take, unable to fathom how Kat had once again turned the situation around on him. Shaking his head and deciding the less he said the better, he turned around at patted Leo on the shoulder, who had just finished rolling his pant leg back down and stood up. "So... How's the leg doin' dude?" "It feels weird..." He mumbled, doing his best to pretend he hadn't heard Kat's last jab. After tapping the toes of his shoe on the stone floor a few times through, he simply shrugged. "But I can move it now, so that means it's better. Right?" "You'll have to ask Jaina about that. She\s he doctor after all." Rift shrugged, roughly slapping him on the shoulder. "But it sounds like an improvement, so let's get going." They all walked into the next room to join Raven, who hadn't bothered to wait around while the others dried themselves off. The room itself opened up into a large veranda, with a view that overlooked most of the other half of the island. A large statue of a person sitting cross-legged sat in the center of the room, adorned with various charms and other bobbles from a culture that none of them recognized. Apart from that however, the room was empty. "Hey... Kat?" Raven muttered, staring up at the statue before them. "What was it we where here to get again.?" "Some sort of..." She began, slowly realizing what he was getting at. "Statue..." She glanced back at the others, and dropped her shoulders dishearteningly. "Oh." "You can't be serious..." Rift gasped, resting his hand on the side of the sculpture. The thing couldn't have been more than seven feet tall, made entirely of stone, and the figure it'd been carved into apparently possessed no small degree of bulk. "Didn't you say we had to bring this thing somewhere?" Kat nodded slowly, crossing her arms and giving a long sigh of defeat. "The hell are we suppose to move a statue of some fat guy all the way to the other side of the island?" "Without magic, either." Raven added, snapping his fingers yet producing no fire. "We're screwed." Quickly glancing around at his comrades, Leo piped up. "W-well, we can't just give up." He tried to sound encouraging, but he himself couldn't fathom now they'd pull something like this off. "We've got to at least try something." Kat gave him a quick glance, then patted her cheeks to get rid of the scowl she wore. "Yeah, you're right bud..." Thinking a moment longer, Kat walked towards the edge of the veranda. "Hey, I'm going to check something. Let me know if you guys think of a plan." With that, Kat left, leaving the guys scratching their heads. "This'd be cake of Zumma where here." Rift muttered, glancing at Raven from behind his shades. "He'd probably just float this whole mountain down to the goal with him." "He could do that?" Leo gasped. Rift chuckle slightly. "Remember a year ago, when that big cargo ship capsized in the port?" Leo thought for a moment, then nodded his head. "Who do you think they called to get the thing upright again?" "Hey guys, come out here!" Kat called to them, stopping their conversation dead. They followed her outside to see her standing a few yards down the path, the shadow figure she'd summoned before standing next to her. "it's a field." She said, pointing to a small line in the dirt she'd drawn with her foot. "Outside it's range, we can use magic. But inside..." The limb of the shadow figure crossed over the line, instantly fading from existence. "Not so much." "And... That helps us how?" Rift shrugged. "Well, we could make a cart or something." Kat suggested. "Or... You could, at least." Clasping his hands together, Rift drew a small metal pole out between his palms. Taking a step forward, he held it over the line that marked the edge of the nullification field, wherein it almost instantly began to rust and dissolve away. "Yeah... Maybe not." "So... What?" Raven huffed, shrugging his shoulders. "What can we do?" "Maybe..." Leo mumbled, trying to think of a plan. "Maybe we could make something?" "You did see what just happened, right?" Rift said, brushing the rust out of his hand. "Anything made of magic fades away. I'd hate to see what happens if it shuts you down while your flying." "Not like that..." Leo shook his head. "What if we made tracks for it to roll on?" Rift and Kat exchanged a quick glance, and Leo pointed out to the trees on either side of the path. "Have you ever seen that machine on TV? The rail-yards back home use it to clear forests to place tracks. It's a big claw on the end of a crane. Once it cuts a tree down, it can strip off all the bark and branches in seconds." "Yeah... Yeah, I know that one." Kat muttered, nudging Rift with her elbow. "You could make something like that, right?" Still looking dumbfounded, Rift slowly nodded his head. "I mean... I could try..." He glanced back at the statue again, then down the hill at the distance coast. "What're we going to do? Lay a track all the way to the beach?" "We'll have to clear a lot more trees..." Leo muttered, glancing at the edge of the treeline. "And we'll need something to make sure it doesn't go off course either. Otherwise we probably won't be able to move it again." "Yeah, that's great and all..." Raven muttered, flicking Leo’s ear. "So... How exactly are we going to get it moving again? Because unless I missed something, we still can't use magic anywhere near it." "Don't be a jerk, Raven!" Kat snapped, wrapping her arms around Leo's shoulders in comfort, despite how much it seemed to annoy the boy. "I don't see you coming up with any ideas." "You know me." He shrugged disinterestedly. "If I can't burn it, I don't care." "Turn it?" Leo mumbled. Raven shot him an annoyed glare. "Burn it. B-u-r-n. Burn. Are you even listening?" "No, we turn it." Leo gasped, pointing back up at the temple. "We get a couple logs long enough to reach outside the barrier, then push them like leavers to move the statue." "Do you have any idea what kind of force that'll take?” Rift muttered. "Hydraulics aren't exactly my thing." "How about..." Raven interrupted, drawing a small, glowing circle on the ground with his foot. "A jet engine." ---- Four hours. That's how long it took for the mages to get Leo's idea to reality. Felling trees was no problem. After a few iterations, Rift's machines where able to cut and strip a tree down in a matter of minutes, and Kat's shadows helped move them into position. They'd dug a small trench along either side of their trail, into which they dropped the largest logs they could find, the idea being that it'd keep the statue moving straight when they finally got it on the move. They had no idea where it's atop, but that'd become a bit of an afterthought once the first few logs had been laid. The second, and much harder part of the plan came after. They'd saved some of the longest trees for their leavers, and had already made a few attempts to get the statue moving using Raven's flames as propulsion. The first time the tree trunks simply snapped under the pressure. Next they tried one on either side, using two jets and two leavers. They told Raven to tone down the intensity as well, to which he only shrugged in response. They'd made small progress on that attempt, but soon enough the trees began to burn away, so they had to be replaced. Just as they where about to set up their third, and last, attempt, Rift approached Kat from behind and nudged her with his elbow. "You really this plan'll work?" "I dunno. But we’ve only got two more trees left, so it's make or break time." Kat muttered, running her hand through her sweat covered hair. "Besides, look at Leo go. It's probably the happiest he's been since leaving home." She stretched out her arms and arched her back, working out the last four hours of stress from her body. "He really is the guild master's son, isn't he?" Rift nodded slightly, a small grin creeping across his face. "He sure is." Leo came running back to them a moment later, waving for them to move away. "Move!" He screamed at them. "He's not waiting!" "Fourth Spell:-." Raven's voice echoed in an ecstatic tone. "Pele!" Flames shot through the forest; apparently Raven wasn't intending to hold back anything this time. The noise deafened them all, and it felt like the ground itself was going to shake itself apart. "Is it working!?" One of hem called, but none of them could make out who it was. They had barely heard it at all, for that matter. Rift slowly leaned out around one of the trees, careful of the bellowing flames. His jaw dropped open, and he quickly bumped the other two with his food and waved for them to take a look. The temple itself was shaking. Violently shaking. But what was more, the statue was moving. Not just a little bit either, it's base was grinding against the stone floor as it slid forwards. Dust fell from the ceiling, and small rocks began to litter the floor. Suddenly the statue tipped onto it’s front, landing hard on log track. The weight must've been incredible, the logs splintered and cracked under the force if it falling. But to everyone's disbelieve, the logs began to roll, slowly carrying the statue down the path they’d carved. The flames died out, and the temple settle once again with a low, earthy groan. Raven emerged from behind a tree a second later, coughing ant waving his hand before his face. "Did it work?" "It did..." Kat stuttered. "It did, it really did!" She jumped to her feet as the statue bounced over the logs. Grabbing Leo in a tight hug, she delightedly began jumping from one foot to the other, their goal suddenly becoming much more achievable. "Oh my god, I'm calling home about this the second we get back to the hotel!" "Hey, uhh..." Rift stuttered, watching the statue slowly gain speed. "Is it just me, or is that thing getting faster?" They all turned to watch the thing speed away, creating a great racket as the logs bounced off each other. "Oh..." They all exchanged a glance, and Kat took a nervous step backwards. "Whoops." ---- The mages sprinted down the side of the mountain, following the shaking and noise that the statue produced in it's decent. It seemed like the plan had worked perfectly three quarters of the way down the path. But beyond that problems began to become apparent. Part of their banister to keep the rolling on track had been smashed, which had sent the statue tumbling head over heals through the forest. Following the trail of destruction it'd left through the trees, the mages of Blazing Soul found the statue laying on it's side atop a small rocky beach, only meters from the water. Kat absentmindedly lay her hand on the thing to catch her breath, when a large magic display lit up in the sky above them. The word WINNER was spelled out in bright pink letters, accompanied by a small fireworks display. "We... We did it..." Leo gasped between breaths, glancing at another small boat waiting for them. "We really did it." Kat threw herself at him, grabbing him up in another big hug and roughly ruffling his long blue hair. "Oh, I'm so proud of you..." She nuzzled her cheek against his, making his face turn a shade of bright pink, before dropping him back in the sand. "Your sister is so going to hear about this tonight." "Kick ass, dude." Rift patted him on the back, before turning around in the direction of the temple again. "Hope we didn't damage the thing too much. Otherwise they may kick us out." "Who cares about some old building?" Raven grinned, drawing a collective sigh from his other companions. "We won, so that means we get to move in the official rounds next." He began to chuckle, and a small flame ignited in his hand. "Time to burn up the competition!" As Raven began to laugh maniacally, Rift nudged Kat in the side with his elbow and whispered in her ear. "I told you we should have left him at home..." Main Page - Grand Magic Games X806' Category:Chapter Category:Chapters Category:GMG X806 Category:Storyline